Summary of ideas submitted in the Retail category…

• Label Irish produced goods in shops/supermarkets.
• Landlords should let retail premises on a short term or “till let” basis (for free or a nominal rent) to the very best in Irish design, arts and crafts.
• Landlords, who have units that are vacant, should give a couple of month’s free rental and subsequently a percentage of the turnover of the business.
• Late Friday and Saturday night shopping hours needed.
• Let’s have an export drive to the Irish abroad - particularly in the UK
• Levy or tax to national lottery tickets.
• Limit the time and have specific dates that retailers are allowed to run sales in their shops unless the are closing down or relocating
• Link up loyalty cards between stores.
• Lower corporation tax is needed.
• Lower the VAT rate to encourage spending. (Repeated idea).
• Lump sum investment and a dividend and funeral services paid for in return.
• Make a promise to yourself to buy at least one product in each shop in your neighbourhood in the next month.
• Match euro for dollar prices on major items.
• More second hand shops should be opened.
• My idea is for someone to set up a website to sell goods from Ireland to anywhere else in the world.
• National postcode system is needed to reduce incidences of fraud for eCommerce companies.
• National Recovery Card is required.
• No VAT should be charged on new car sales for a period of time example 2 months.
• Offer an urban development fund to businesses and councils to incentivise investment.
• “Order and Collect” - Imagine if you could go to a location, for example a community centre, a post office or even a neighbours house, order all your shopping from an online catalogue have it delivered to that location and collect it and pay for it later. (Repeated idea)
• Paper receipts are useless for any value-added analysis of ones shopping history and planning.
• Part of the unemployment allowance could be food vouchers rather than cash.
• People should be encouraged to shop locally and support local businesses.
• Pharmacists, GPs, dentists, solicitors etc, could share a professional employee to cover their lunch breaks.
• Plastic bottle tax should be introduced.
• Promote handmade Irish goods made and sold online.
• Provide a scrappage scheme for cars.
• Provide brown carrier bags for grocery shopping.
• Raise taxes on luxury items: Cigarettes & Alcohol
• Rates for new retail ventures should be given an 18/24th month reduction.
• Reduce minimum wage for those under 23.
• Reduce the price of goods. (Repeated idea).
• Reduce social welfare fraud
• Reduce the VRT and VAT rate to equal the Northern Ireland VAT rates. (Repeated idea).
• Remove copper coins from circulation.